Known for its hand-cut noodles, the Kitakata area of northern Fukuoka specializes in ramen made with fat, wavy egg noodles. It’s served in a shoyu (soy sauce) based soup together with simple toppings: a few pieces of chashu pork, bamboo shoots, and a piece of naruto, a fish cake with a spiral of pink and white color. Although the ingredients may seem fairly basic, a bowl of Kitakata ramen fits many Japanese people’s quintessential image of what ramen looks like